Cong in search of Dalit or Brahmin chief for UP

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) The Congress is mulling several options, including a Dalit or a Brahmin face, for the post of state chief in Uttar Pradesh after the party suffered a poll debacle in the recent Assembly elections.

The party could win only two seats in the 403-member Assembly.

Party sources said that the Congress is searching for options among the Dalit and Brahmin communities. The party has limited options as its prominent Dalit face is P.L. Punia, who is party in-charge for Chhattisgarh, while the Brahmin face is Pramod Tiwari but his daughter Aradhna Mishra is legislative party leader.

The Congress lost the Assembly elections badly and got only 2 per cent votes, but party sources say that the Congress will be consistent in approach as now the public knows that the Samajwadi Party can't defeat the BJP and the BSP is a spent force. So the Congress will grow in the state and next elections will be for the Lok Sabha, where the Congress will pitch itself directly against the BJP, sources added.

Though Brahmins and non Jatav Scheduled Caste voters mostly voted for the BJP but the Congress leaders insist that there is a chance of making inroads by giving more prominence to the communities that are feeling sidelined.

The party will appoint working presidents in which one of the faces will be from the minority community and the recent meeting between Azam Khan and Pramod Krishnam has sparked a speculation in the political circles. Acharya Pramod Krishnam met Samajwadi PartY (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan in the Sitapur jail on April 25.

Krishnam, who is considered close to Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is the first leader outside the SP to have met the jailed leader. Krishnam met Azam Khans family in Rampur.

It has been more than a month since Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu resigned after the party's humiliating defeat in 2022 Assembly elections , party organisation secretary Anil Yadav said 'the Congress constitution provided for a senior general secretary taking care of day-to-day work in the absence of UPCC chief'.

"Senior general secretary Dinesh Singh is performing his duties to ensure UPCC's smooth functioning," he said.